Promises, Promises
by Crystal
Summary: The second in a trilogy. Follows "Welcome Back" Dick and Barbara are back together, but can he really keep all the promises that he made to her?
1. Promises, Promises Chapter 1: Happy Anni...

TITLE: Promises, Promises

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, so I was writing this little thing that wouldn't get out of my head about Bruce having and heart attack and that reuniting Barbara and Dick. But you know, my little angst filled brain won't let it just end there. So this (originally) short little fluff piece of a story has turned into a full blown trilogy. This is the second part in the trilogy, which hopefully will be done sometime by the end of the week. I hope you enjoy it.

THE STORY SO FAR: In "Welcome Back," after Bruce Wayne suffered a heart attack, Tim Drake called upon Barbara Gordon to watch Bruce in the hospital until he could get into the city. After contemplating whether or not to go, considering she hadn't spoken to him in four years, she finally decided to go as a favor to Tim. While there, she encountered Dick Grayson, whom she also had made a point to not contact for many a year. After venting their history of hostility upon each other, they finally professed that they were still in love with each other, just as Bruce suffered another heart attack. Tim arrived the next morning, leaving Dick to drive Barbara home, where they continued their discussion. Barbara's main concern was that he would leave her yet again, but after proving that his intentions were to stay this time, she took him back. 

TIME: 18 years before Batman Beyond or roughly almost two years after "Welcome Back."

DISCLAIMER: Don't own… don't sue. Have a good day.

Barbara Gordon stood at the window to her apartment and looked at the new day. She smiled and turned around to look back at her bed where Dick Grayson lay, still sleeping. She looked at him in wonder. _He really did it. I can't believe it but he did. He said he would stay and he did. And when I asked him to give up being Nightwing, he did that too, no fight, no going back. Why did I ever doubt it?_ She walked out of the room and went to the kitchen, ready to make breakfast, but was greeted by a large package on the table in the center of the room. A bow tied around it said "Happy Anniversary."

She laughed. "He can't even remember our anniversary."

Barbara shook her head smiling as two arms wrapped around her. "No…. you're the one who can't remember our anniversary."

She laughed and turned to Dick. "I _know _when our anniversary is, buster. _Today_ is one year, seven months and 16 days since we started dating. So there." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "But this is still sweet."

Dick unwrapped his arms from around her and held her at arm's length. "That's just when we started dating. _This _time around. In case you forgot, Ms. Gordon… today is exactly 15 years from the first day that we met."

Barbara's jaw dropped. _How did he remember that? I didn't even know that._ Dick laughed and smiled at her. "Open your present."

She shook her head. "You amaze me… you truly do sometimes," she remarked as she turned around to open the present."

Dick smiled broadly. "I know… that's what I'm here for."

She opened the box and found in it a small appointment book, like the kind she used to carry around in high school. "Okay, Dick… I know I didn't remember today, but you don't have to rub it in."

He laughed and sat down at the table. "No… open it up and look thorough it."

"Fine…" she sat down next to him and looked through the book. There were all sorts of dates written all throughout the book… their anniversary of this latest time they were dating… the anniversary of the first time they went out on a date… of the day they started going steady the first time… of the first time they met as Batgirl and Robin… of the day they realized who each other was… everything was in there… including that day… the first day they had met fifteen years ago. And on that day, there was a dinner date written in for her at seven o'clock in her favorite restaurant. She looked at him. "Wow… you put quite a lot of thought into this, didn't you?"

"Yep… dinner tonight… you'll be there right?"

"Yeah, I'll call in sick at work. I don't think anyone will mind… I've got about a half a year of sick days heading my way."

"Perfect," he said as he leaned across the table to kiss her. "Now, I've got to get up and going… got to make all the arrangements for tonight." He winked as he walked to the bathroom. 

She watched him go with a contented smile on her face. _I really did luck out this time. I really did._

That night, she showed up at Millian's at seven o'clock on the dot as instructed. Dick had been gone all day, making "arrangements" for tonight. She had no idea what he was going to do, but that was what she loved most about him. The matre'd showed her to a table, where Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake were already sitting. She looked the two of them over as she sat down.

"This is an anniversary dinner… what are you two doing here?" she asked suspiciously.

Tim shrugged. "You know better than we do. Dick just told me to show up here tonight… didn't tell me why or anything."

"Same with me," Bruce chimed in. Barbara looked at him. He had recovered well from his heart attacks. Although he hadn't stopped patrolling as Batman completely, his three protégés had convinced him to cut down on that, as well as his work at the offices. "And as always," he finished."He's the last one to show."

Almost on cue, Dick arrived at the table, and sat down in the last open chair, across from Barbara. "Sorry, everyone… I had to pick up a package real quick before dinner."

Barbara reached across the table and placed a hand on his. "Dick… I love Bruce and Tim, but I thought this was an anniversary dinner for _us_."

He patted her hand with his free one. "It is… but I wanted to share this night with family. And I figured that really… Bruce and Tim _are _our family."

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm not going to debate you on that one."

He swallowed. "And I would have wanted to ask your dad this, but I just waited too long, so, Bruce seemed like the best person to ask."

"Dick… what are you talking about?"

Dick turned to Bruce and swallowed again. "Mr. Wayne, sir."

Bruce laughed shortly. "Yes, Richard?"

"You are the closest person that my beautiful Barbara has to a father. So I ask you, with all the respect in the world… may I have this lovely woman's hand in marriage?"

The silence at the table was astonishing. Tim's jaw dropped and Barbara's face paled as tears welled up in her eyes. Bruce's face did not change, but those who knew him best could tell that on the inside, he was smiling broader than he ever had his entire life. 

"Yes, Richard… if she will have you… I give you full permission to take her." He said aloud and the leaned over and whispered into Dick's ear, "And I'm sure Jim would have, too."

Now the tears were welling up his own eyes as he faced across the table and took her hands into his. A tear rolled down her cheek as she said softly, "Dick…"

He shook his head. "No… I have this all planned out and if I don't just say it all, I'm going to forget it." He swallowed again and took a deep breath. "Barbara… I knew from the first moment I met you that there could never be anyone else for me. As much as you annoyed me… always being right about everything… you challenged me in so many ways. I was a fool for ever letting you go, a fool who realized his mistake too late and bungled up everything he tried to do to correct it. And I know that we said the we would wait a couple of years before we even talked about marriage, but it's been fifteen years, Barbara. And you know, in your heart of hearts, that there is _no_ way I am letting you go ever again." He paused, pulling a box out of his pocket and opening it for her. "Please, will you do my the honor of being my wife, Barbara Gordon?"

The tears rushed down her face as she tried to choke out the words, but they wouldn't come. Sobbing, she nodded and leaned across the table to kiss him… Dick… her fiancé. 

TO BE CONTINUED


	2. Promises, Promises Chapter 2: Secrets

# TITLE: Promise, Promises Chapter 2: Secrets

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters, so please don't sue me. 

The entire "family" of Dick, Barbara, Bruce and Tim sat in the restaurant for hours, eating and talking. Barbara looked at the scene, the four of them, sitting around the table, conversing and chatting. She thought back to almost two years ago. To when she wasn't even on speaking terms with her now fiancé. To when she couldn't even think of Bruce Wayne without cursing his name. To when Tim couldn't drag the three of them to the same table even if he had used a herd of wild horses. How times had changed in the course of two years. 

After a good four hours at dinner, Barbara stood up. "Well, gentlemen, I'm very sorry, but I do have to get my beauty sleep before work tomorrow." She walked over to the other side of the table and took Dick's arm. "And if you don't mind, I am going to take my new fiancé with me. So, if you don't mind…"

"Not at all," Bruce answered. "Provided that Dick allows me to walk you out to the car."

Barbara smiled as Dick laughed. "Just don't get fresh with her, old man. She's mine now… officially," he added with a smile. 

Barbara took Bruce's hand and the two of them walked ahead of Dick and Tim. Bruce looked at her face for a moment, before saying anything. "You look happy, Barbara," he stated simply.

She smiled even broader and looked up at him. "You know, I am. I really am. I had my doubts about this at first, but he's proved me wrong on every one of them. I'm really impressed with him."

Bruce nodded. "Well… I'm glad to see you happy. That's all you deserve, Barbara. And you're good for him, too."

"Yeah, I guess I am. I never actually thought that he would hang up the cape, but I'm delightfully surprised."

Bruce's smile turned into a forced one. "Yes… well, I'm glad that he makes you happy. He can treat you well… better than I ever could have."

She stopped and faced him. Her smile left her face. "Bruce…"

Dick walked up and put an arm around Bruce as they arrived at her car. "May I have my fiancé back now, Mr. Wayne?"

Bruce nodded, flashing a smile. "Of course… I was just making sure she knew what she was in for with you. Goodnight, you two. Dick… I'll see you at work tomorrow."

"G'night, Bruce." Dick called over his shoulder as he got into Barbara's car with her. Barbara started the car and drove out of the parking lot as Dick turned to her. "So, what'd Bruce have to say?"

She smiled thinly. "Oh, nothing. Just happy to see us together after all these years."

"Yeah…" he said softly as he placed his hand on the gearshift over hers. "Finally."

"Yeah…" she repeated softly as she drove. _Do you know, Dick? Do you have any idea at all?_

Barbara and Dick walked into the apartment that they now both shared and no sooner did she set the keys down than the phone rang. Dick went to the kitchen to answer it.

"Hello? Bruce… yeah." The smile left his words as Barbara overheard from the living room. "Yeah… no problem. I'll be right there." He hung up and walked into the front hall, picking up his coat again. 

"Work?" Barbara asked, watching him pick up the keys she had just set down.

He frowned. "Yeah. A big Wayne merger is falling through and Bruce wants me down at the office right now. I'm sorry hun."

He walked over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "It's ok… you know, sometimes I think I liked it better when he would call you to wisk you off on some crime fighting thing… at least then we would be working together. And you'd be in that cute suit," she added with a slight smile.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Hey now… be careful what you wish for." He gave her another kiss. "Bye, hun," and exited. 

Dick arrived at Wayne Manor and walked in, heading straight for the grandfather clock that had hid Bruce Wayne biggest secret for almost thirty years. Opening it up, he sighed, thinking the same thing he did every time Bruce called him. He walked down those long steps and walked to Bruce, sitting in his chair behind the computer. 

"I can't keep lying to her like this, Bruce." He said as he was handed the Batman costume from the elder. "Especially now… especially when we're married."

"I know…," Bruce acknowledged. "You have to tell her."

Dick stepped back a bit. "That's not what I meant, Bruce. I can't tell her… I promised her that I would give it up completely." He paused before he finished the thought. "And now, after tonight, I do… have to give it up."

Bruce did nothing but look at him for a moment before he turned back to the computer. "After tonight…"

And knowing that that was all Bruce was going to say on the subject, Dick walked away and changed into the cape and cowl that he had forever been trying to get away from.

"Okay…. Watch that one… ok… got it? I'm coming down now."

Barbara Gordon carefully stepped down the ladder that led into the small attic above her apartment. She pointed at the box that she had handed him. 

"Try that one. It should be in a big box by itself."

Dick opened it as she stepped back up the ladder into the attic. "Babs… what _is_ all this stuff?"

"My entire life in boxes," she yelled down. "Actually, I don't know what half this stuff is. Toys from when I was a kid. Some of my mom and dad's old stuff that they left me. My mom's wedding dress in here somewhere… I know it."

Dick started looking through the box as Barbara stepped down with another couple of flat boxes. She set them down on the floor. "Okay… it's got to be one of these three."

She opened the first box and gasped when she saw what was inside. Dick looked over. "Did you find it?"

She smiled and nodded, pulling the dress ever so carefully out of the box. It was amazing to Dick's eyes. A creamy white satin dress that was very simple with no sleeves and a cowled neck. He could already imagine Barbara in that dress. She held it up to her and twirled around. "Well… what do you think?" 

Dick stood up and stepped over to her, taking her in his arms. "I think you're gorgeous," he said before kissing her. "But isn't it bad luck for me to see the bride-to-be's dress before the wedding?"

She shook her head. "No… only if you see me in it. Besides, I don't believe in those superstitions, anyway."

He smiled and kissed her again. "So what's in the rest of these boxes? Let's look through them."

Barbara started to put the dress back in the box as she shook her head. "No… we don't really need to…"

Dick laughed. "Are you afraid of the box of pictures I saw over here? Are there some cute baby ones? Huh? Let's see…" he said as he sat down and opened a picture box. Barbara saw the box he was opening and sat down beside him, closing it. 

"No… we really don't need to look at those. They're just old pictures from a few summers ago."

Dick held onto them as she tried to grab them away. "No… come on, I've never seen these."

"No, Dick…" she said as she made a tug at them, but the pictures came spilling out all over the floor. She covered her face as Dick stared, open jawed at the pictures strewn out in front of him. 

Barbara and Bruce at the beach. Barbara and Bruce at a society function. Barbara and Bruce at dinner. Barbara and Bruce… kissing.

He stared at the pictures for a moment, seeing, but not allowing himself to comprehend. "Barbara…," he asked softly. "What are these?"

"Pictures… of Bruce and I," she answered simply.

He took the one of them kissing and stared at it, refusing to look at her. "And… now I may just be stupid here… but it looks to me like you two were… what? Giving each other mouth-to-mouth?"

"Dick… it… it just happened. I don't know how. But it was a long time ago," she explained.

"When?" Dick asked through clenched teeth. 

Barbara took a deep breath. "It started a little before Jason… died, so to speak. After I was shot. For the first month or so afterwards, he wouldn't come to visit me at all, but then, when I was getting ready to leave the hospital, he offered for me to stay up at the Manor with him and Alfred. Figured that it would be easier than hiring someone to take care of me. Well, I was living with Jason at the time, so I said no, because Jason had, I thought, been willing to help me through it. But Bruce would come over all the time, just to talk, spend time with me, which was great, especially with Jason spending more and more time at the office. I didn't even notice that he was growing so far apart from me. And then came the ski trip with his buddies from the office… and the avalanche that killed him. I couldn't stay in that house anymore… I just couldn't. So, Bruce said that the offer to stay at Wayne Manor was still on the table, and, seeing that a better option than moving back in with my father, I took him up on it. I don't know how it happened from there… I really don't. He was there for me when no one else was. I had lost you, I had lost Jason… he was the only person I had to turn to."

Dick hadn't looked up the entire time she was talking. "And what ended it between you two?"

"When you told him that Jason was still alive and he decided to relay the news back to me. That's when it ended."

Dick sat silent, looking at the pictures, for a long time before standing up and walking to the front hallway. Barbara stood up after him. 

"Dick… where are you going?"

He took his coat from the closet and put it on. "For a walk."

"But…," she called after him, but he was already out the door. _Damnit!_ She thought as she slumped down on the couch in the living room.

Dick got into his car and headed for the interstate. He pulled up at Wayne Manor ten minutes later (a personal best for a drive that should have taken half an hour), and let himself in the front door. Storming downstairs to the chair that he knew Bruce would be sitting at, he walked up and turned the chair around to face him. Bruce's eyes opened wide with confusion as Dick threw the pictures in his lap.

"Want to explain that, _friend_?"

Bruce picked up the pictures and sighed as he realized what Dick meant. "She never told you about it?"

Dick shook his head. "Until fifteen minutes ago, no… but neither had you. Want to give it a shot now?"

Bruce looked at the pictures. "I took care of her… and it evolved into more. There's nothing more to say, really. I screwed it up… just like I did every other relationship I've ever had."

Dick stood there, motionless, before asking quietly, "Her back…"

"Did she tell you about that?"

He sat down in the chair next to Bruce. "No… she never would. You fixed it for her, didn't you? Waynetech, right?"

Bruce nodded as he thought back to four years ago when he told her what he thought was great news. Since the day after she was shot, he had a team from Waynetech Medical working on possible ways to fix it. Or to do something. It killed him to see her in that wheelchair, unable to walk, unable to run. When she had moved into the Manor, no one had thought much of it. But when the two were seen more often in public, at society events and the like, people began to talk. James Gordon came to the Manor one day while Barbara was at physical therapy and given him the third degree about it. 

"What's going on here, Wayne? What are you doing with my daughter?"

"With all due respect, James, I love your daughter and I just want to take care of her," he had answered, knowing that at the time, it was the truth. 

"Wayne, I've known you since you were a child, and I've seen you grow into quite the playboy and I'll be damned if my daughter is going to be another trophy on your mantle," James Gordon spat at him before walking out. 

And then, after he had told her about Jason Bard still being alive, Barbara had cut off communication with him as well. Then, a short year and a half later, Waynetech had finally come through with the technology to repair her severed spinal cord. He rushed to her apartment, sure that she would be just as excited as he was about the news. However, the greeting he received from far from what he expected. 

When he had knocked at the door, he had heard her shout, "Come on in," from inside of the apartment. When he walked in, she turned around from her computer desk and her face turned cold as she turned back to the computer. "I thought it was Lainey." She paused, typing a few words. "What are you doing here?"

He walked over and pulled up a chair next to her. "Barbara, I have some great news for you. Waynetech's been researching it for years, but now, they're finally figured out a way to repair damaged spinal cords." He watched as Barbara's fingers slowly stopped moving on the keyboard and she turned her eyes towards him. "You can walk again, Barbara," he whispered excitedly. 

She looked at him, straight at him for the first time in a year, and he face was one of elation with confusion dominating it. In her eyes, he could see that she was truly happy… she just didn't know how to take it. She looked at him for a moment before turning first her head, and then her entire body away from him and wheeling away from the computer. "Go away," she said softly.

He stood up and followed her, not knowing why she was acting like this. "Why… Barbara… you're going to be able to walk again… aren't you excited?"

She continued to wheel into the kitchen. "You're not my friend Bruce, and I don't need your charity."

"Damnit, Barbara," he cursed as he followed her still. "Stop being so damn proud… it's not charity. It's a way for you to walk again."

"It's charity and I don't need it from you. Please leave," she pleaded, still not looking at him. 

Bruce walked in front of her and stopped the chair by holding the arms of it. He bent down, looking right into her face. "Don't tell me that you don't dream every day about being able to step out your door and walk in the grass and swim at the beach. I know you do, Barbara. You shared those dreams with me once upon a time. Now, it can happen. You can be you again."

She sniffed away a tear and looked up at him. "And who am I to you, Bruce? Batgirl? Because those days are long gone. Even if I can walk, I've given that part of my life up. This…," she said, motioning to the wheelchair. "This is who I am now. I don't know how to be anything else anymore." Bruce's hands released the chair and she backed up, heading for her bedroom. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like it if you never came here ever again. You can find you own way out," she said as she went into her bedroom and closed the door.

Bruce opened his eyes and saw Dick Grayson still standing in front of him, waiting to her what Bruce had to say. "I told her father, who, much like her, was none too happy to see me at first, but when Jim heard that she would be able to walk again, he was so happy. He ended up talking her into having the surgery. And it worked, obviously. So, yes… Waynetech fixed her, if that's what you wanted to hear."

Dick stood there, biting his lip. "Why didn't you tell me about you two? I mean, good God, Bruce, why did you even do it in the first place? You _knew_ how much I loved her. You could have any girl in Gotham… why did you have to have mine, too?"

"I didn't…. Dick… it just happened. Neither of us expected it to, and we didn't want to hurt you… that's why we never told you."

Dick just stood there for a moment and shook his head, before walking away. 

"Where are you going?" Bruce yelled after him.

"Out on patrol. I need to get away from you people for a while." He said, still walking. 

After Dick left, Barbara had roamed around the apartment, not knowing what to do, before finally deciding to head to work… head down to the station for a while to get her mind off of things. 

She ended up sitting at her desk and doing all the paper work that she'd been putting off forever, but her mind wasn't in it. She was too distracted. Finally, she decided to take a radio with her and go tell Bruce what had happened. 

She pulled into Wayne Manor and saw Dick's car in the driveway. _Oh, God…_ she thought. _What's he doing here?_ But she still got out of the car and entered the house. She looked around, thinking that maybe they'd be upstairs, but there was no sign of them. With a sigh, she headed for the grandfather clock that housed the place she had avoided even when she had stayed there. Walking down the steps slowly, she looked around at the cave. It had never seemed like a light place exactly, but it seemed so much darker now than the last time she had been there. Now that Bruce was the only one around here, it seemed sadder, lonelier without Dick or Tim training around there, shining up their vehicles, or something else in the vein. She turned around the corner and saw Bruce sitting in the chair, facing the computer screen. 

"Bruce… we need to talk," she warned as she slowly walked toward him. "Dick… he…"

The chair turned around and he held up the pictures that Dick had brought over. "Knows about us? Yeah… He paid me a little visit."

Barbara took the pictures and sighed as she sat down in the same chair that Dick had earlier. "What did you tell him?"

Bruce shrugged. "The truth. I can't believe that you never told him, Barbara. Almost two years, and you didn't tell him about it."

She turned away from his gaze. "It didn't matter. It was a long time ago and it didn't matter anymore. I knew what his reaction would be and I didn't want him to go through that."

Bruce looked directly at her and said shortly, "Well, he did." Barbara's police radio squeaked for a moment and an officer said something about a bank robbery, but neither of them paid attention to it. He looked away again and said softly. "He asked about your back, too."

She turned back to him. "Oh God… Did he…?"

Bruce shook his head. "I don't know. After he heard that he left."

"Well, where did he go?"

Bruce paused for a second before answering. "I don't know."

Barbara sighed and leaned forward. "Bruce… what am I going to do? I screwed it up this time. I can't even blame him. It was my fault. He pulled up his end of the bargain, but I couldn't be honest with him."

Her bottom lip started to quiver as the radio squeaked once more, letting the officers know that Batman had apprehended the subject in question. She caught this piece of information, and her lip stopped as her mouth parted into an expression of slight shock. She looked at Bruce and his eyes widened as he saw her stand up from the chair and walk over to where the costumes hung, almost in a daze. She went past her old costume, past Tim's, past Jason Todd's, past Dick's to where Bruce's was… should have been. Instead, there was nothing. There was an empty space. Bruce noticed her straighten stiffly before she turned around and began walking back to him. 

"Bruce…" she started with a quiet ferocity that could only come from Barbara. "Bruce… how can Batman stop a bank robbery when I'm sitting here talking to him?"

Bruce swallowed hard. "Barbara…"

Her voice rose to a level that echoed in the large cave. "_DON'T_ 'Barbara' me. _How,_ Bruce? Explain it to me. And fast." She hissed out.

He looked away for a moment, and then looked up into her eyes. "I'm sorry." He couldn't think of anything else to say. Except that.

She shook her head, tears now streaming from her eyes and futilely tried to form a phrase before just turning and running up the stairs. 

Bruce made no motion to stop her.

Barbara Gordon walked past the security guard at the desk and took the elevator up to the offices floor of the Gotham City Police Department. The desk guard would remember that she had seemed unusually distraught that night. Typically she would stop and chat for a while. _Something must be wrong,_ the guard thought. _I'll ask her about it tomorrow._

Barbara walked into her office and went straight to the windowsill. Removing a loose tile, she picked up a small item and stuck it in her pocket as she went back to the elevator. 

Technically… she was not allowed to have the item that she now held in her hand. Only the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and the Mayor were to have this item, but she was Jim Gordon's daughter. And when she had moved into his old office, she had kept his most treasured item in its hiding place.

Barbara arrived on the roof and turned the key… waiting. _He'll come… he won't be able to resist._

Dick sat on the rooftop of a building as his eyes patrolled the ground below. It was a slow night… something he usually would have relished in, but tonight was not one of those nights. He wanted to be Batman on that night. The one bank robber he had stopped would most certainly think twice about returning to a life of crime. The overly severe beating that Dick had given him would assure that fact. Dick wished for another bank robbery such as that one when he saw the Bat signal flash across the sky. 

_Yes,_ he thought. _Time for some action._

_ _

She heard the clink as the grappling hook attached to the building. The tall figure landed next, walking over to where he saw a person standing next to the large light.

"Yes, Commissioner? What can I do for you?" The Batman asked the figure in the darkness.

"That's a really good imitation you do there…" the figure said.

Even though the mask hid his face, Barbara could feel his face pale as he took a breath. 

She stepped forward into the light of the signal. She spoke shortly and simply with no expression on her face.

"I think we need to have a talk."


	3. Promises, Promises Chapter 3: Never Agai...

Title: Promises, Promises, Chapter 3: Never Again

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I'm just borrowing and I will put them back when I'm done. 

Barbara Gordon stood in the light of the bat signal facing her fiancé, Dick Grayson. She stepped toward him. "I think we need to have a long talk."

The muscles in his face tensed. "Barbara…"

"No." she said sharply. "I will _not _talk to you while you're wearing that thing."

Dick swallowed and reached around his head, removing the mask that he hid behind. "Barbara… Let me explain…"

"Explain what?" she lashed out. "Explain how we had an agreement and you _broke_ it. And how not only did you break that agreement, you _lied_ about it. Explain that."

He shook his head and took a step toward her. "It was the only way, Barbara. It was the only way I could get Bruce to take a break from being the Bat. I _had_ to do it." He reached out for her, but she turned away.

"And did you have to lie about it, too?" She asked, facing away. He made another move toward her, but she flung his hand off of her shoulder. "Don't touch me," she said through clenched teeth. "I _trusted_ you this time. You promised me that it would be different, but you lied. You broke your promise, Dick, and I don't even want to look at you right now."

Dick stepped back, wounded. He was truly stunned at her hostile words. They stood there for a moment, two hurt people, before he backed up more. "I'm not the only one who had secrets, Babs," he said softly as he released the grappling hook and swung off the building.

Barbara turned around to see his cloaked figure flying away and let out a sob as she sank to the ground.

When Barbara returned to her apartment hours later, after sitting in her office, crying, she walked in to find an unnatural, empty feeling in the rooms. After entering her own room, the room they both shared, she found that Dick's clothes were missing and his pictures were gone from the nightstand. She looked frantically over the apartment for a not of some kind, or something to let her know where he had gone to, but found nothing.

For the second time that night, she got in her car and drove to Wayne Manor.

"Where is he, Bruce?" Barbara asked before even making the turn around the corner down the stairs into the actual cave. She continued walking to him. "Where is he?"

Bruce shook his head. "I don't know." He pointed to the Bat mobile, parked in its usual place. "The car came back on auto pilot with the costume in it. Go look for yourself." She walked over to the car slowly as Bruce continued talking. "He left a note for you on the suit. He must have figured that you'd come back here."

She walked up to the car and took the note off of the suit. Reading it, she forced back tears.

Barbara, 

I'm sorry I hurt you. I should have known better.

We were always wrong from the start. We just tried to kid

Ourselves into thinking that maybe this time it would work.

We weren't kidding anyone. 

I know my place is not here. And not with you. Not ever.

So don't expect to see me again. I won't bother you. 

Consider me dead. That should make it easier on you.

I really didn't mean for it to end like this, Barbara, I promise.

My love is always with you,

Dick

Barbara wiped away a tear as Bruce came up to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "I'm sorry, Barbara."

She sniffled and looked up at him. "You should be." Shocked, Bruce let go of her shoulder and took a step back. "I blame this you. You emotionally blackmailed him into staying. You just can't let me be happy, can you? You always have to ruin it." She clenched the note in her hand tightly and began walking toward the stair, leaving Bruce speechless. When she reached the stairs, she stopped and turned around. "Never again… I _never_ want to see or speak to you ever again. Rot in hell, Bruce Wayne," she spat out lastly as she made her way up the stairs into the house.

Barbara sat at her desk, engrossing herself in paper work. She was trying to avoid thinking about the events of that past weekend, however futile. Suddenly there was a knock on her door and she looked up. "Come in."

Sam Young, a lawyer from the public defender's office walked in. Barbara had worked with him on a few cases, and they had since become good friends. "Good Morning, Barbara."

She forced a smile. "Hi, Sam."

He walked in and sat down across from her with a wide smile. "So… I heard the great news. Congratulations. That Grayson is a lucky guy."

Barbara's smile faded as she looked away. "Actually, um… we just broke up last night."

Sam's smile faded as well and he sighed. "Oh, god… I'm sorry, Barbara. I… I didn't know."

She shook her head. "No… it's okay. We just realized that we're too different. That there were too many… obstacles in the way. Better now than after the wedding, right?" she said forcing a laugh. 

Sam smiled kindly again and stood up. "Well, if you need anything, I'm here for you, ok?"

She nodded and smiled genuinely for the first time. "Yeah… thanks Sam."

Sam nodded and stepped out of the office as Barbara sat back down. She looked at the picture that sat on her desk and slowly, carefully picked it up, opened her drawer and placed it in there. _Dead to me_, she thought. _Dead._

THE END.


End file.
